"To be a housewife is a difficult, a wrenching, sometimes an ungrateful job if it is looked on only as a job. Regarded as a profession, it is the noblest as it is the most ancient of the catalogue. Let none persuade us differently or the world is lost indeed."

~ Phyllis McGinley

A True Woman - Reflecting Redemption

This beautiful lady is my Sweet Aunt Susie.
Susan Dishman ran the race that was set before her and impacted an untold number of lives all the while. I am so thankful that I was one of those lives. She was the best example of a Godly woman, wife, mother, aunt, and friend. She fought the good Fight of the Faith, her strength was found in her total trust and reliance on God. It was three years ago today that she received her place in Glory and lost her fight with ovarian cancer.

She blessed my life to such an extent, I didn't know how I would learn to exist with out Aunt Susie.

Sometimes I forget, I actually forget that she isn't here.




At times, you may have heard me quip, "Aunt Susie always said . . . " Well, I would like to share a few bits of wisdom from her:

*Trying to get something done and it may not be coming out just right: Aunt Susie would surely say, "Close enough."

*Trying to get a cranky, running on fumes, and dangerously close to melt down kid(s) into bed:
"Better go to sleep or I'll get a rock and rock you to sleep" Then she'd laugh.

*Trying to explain to someone that maybe the decision they are about to make isn't the best:
"Well, they are going to do what they are going to." Meaning you can't make others understand, no matter how much you'd like for them to.

*You see a baby tighten fists, close eyes, and start to pucker up:
"Are you starting to tune up?" Meaning there is going to be a fit and it is going to be loud. Then she would liesurely hand the baby back to the respective parent. Laughing, of course.

*This is my all time favorite, and if you know me well, you've probably heard it:
"God is sovereign and has known about me and this cancer since before the foundations of the earth. I will always trust and believe that His Plan is Perfect. I don't have to understand it."

Here is a story that I heard shortly after her death. It gave me comfort in my grief.

Malachi 3:3 Refiner and Purifier of Silver

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up.

He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."
She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy - when I see my image in it."

I Am His Child

a hymn written by Anna L. Waring in 1850:

Father, I know that all my life
Is portioned out for me,
And the changes that are sure to come
I do not fear to see;
I ask Thee for a present mind,
Intent on pleasing Thee.

I would not have the restless will
That hurries to and fro,
Seeking for some great thing to do
Or secret thing to know;
I would be treated as a child
And guided where I go.

Wherever in the world I am,
In whatsoever estate,
I have a fellowship with hearts
To keep and cultivate .

Back by Popular Demand! (just kidding)

Hello, dear reader, it has been a while and I am so sorry for neglecting my blog. I have a very good reason, I have been totally enjoying my summer which doesn't really include sitting at the computer very often. Hey, people are lucky if I actually email them!

So, what have we been up to?! Well, we recently went up north to OK-LA-HO-MA. Oklahoma City to be exact. We went to see family and to visit the Cowboy Museum. It was a great trip.
My dd is really happy when she has a craft to work on, so I encouraged her to make a present for our very special Cousin Myra and so this is what she came up with from a little of this and that from my scrap booking scraps (up to the left there).

I was so impressed with the Cowboy Museum. It was impressive and inspiring. I was introduced to my new favorite artist, Morgan Weistling. (WoW! Momentous occasion ya'll that <- that was my first link, I finally figured it out!!!)












Just recently we had an adventure downtown. It was Free Fare Day on the Dart Rail. My kids
love to ride the train and you can't beat free! On our adventure we rode the trolley, scoped out
the Museum of Art, and had a lovely lunch at Chipotle looking out the window watching the all the trolleys go by. We went for a walk on the old brick sidewalk, shaded by the trees, looking at the sweet townhouses and store fronts. I thought it was charming and a great memory for us to treasure. Funny enough, on the train ride home, a man introduced himself and said that he was a reporter for The Dallas Morning News. He interviewed us on our day - it being the Free Fare Day as the motivation for our downtown adventure. He said we should be looking for the story in the next day's paper -yeah, right! It was still an interesting thing to have happen.

Okay, so here is something else that we worked on recently.

It began with a conversation over breakfast about energy, what it is and where it comes from. So we went over the usual - wind, water, lightning, and the sun. "The sun?" says dd. Yes, I said and told her how people take energy from the sun(light) to run calculators, refridgerators(sp?), and ovens. I told her that it was specifically developed for people who relied mainly on firewood for their cooking. Fuel for the fire was scarce and some women would walk for miles just to gather enough sticks to try to cook one meal. She was completely intrigued. So we did research on the web

about Solar Stoves and Ovens. It took us a couple of

hours and quite a few attempts to design our own solar stove. What we came up with looked similar to this ->

We have successfully used the hot water from the solar stove to make tea, to saute onions, and cook beans. It was an educational endeavor that left me thankful and even a bit ashamed of the waste we have in this country when so many others do without the very basic necessities of life.

And last of all, I would like to inform you that I have a new blog that will be devoted to sewing. That is what has been my major preoccupation over the last couple of weeks. So if you are interested come and see what we have been up to at SewAnyway.blogspot.com.